By Nigel Morris, Home Affairs Correspondent
A civil liberties storm erupted yesterday after a senior judge called for the genetic details of every person in Britain, and all visitors to the country, to be added to the national DNA database. Critics warned that the "chilling" move would infringe privacy, be hugely impractical and have only a marginal impact on crime.
Downing Street and the Home Office, which have been accused of moving Britain towards a surveillance society, distanced themselves from Lord Justice Sedley's controversial suggestion without entirely ruling it out.
About 4.1 million samples are already on the database, almost 7 per cent of the population and far more than in any other Western country. Police can take DNA from anyone arrested, regardless of whether they are eventually charged.
But Sir Stephen Sedley, one of the most experienced Court of Appeal judges, protested that there were "indefensible" anomalies in the system, including disproportionate numbers of people from ethnic minorities on the database.
He said: "We have a situation where if you happen to have been in the hands of the police, your DNA is permanently on record and if you haven't, it isn't."
The judge told the BBC that the ...   more »

Author: Clayton B. Reid  
Under a new test program supported by the Bush administration, Mexico truckers are being allowed to drive anywhere in the United States. (Getty)
Mexican trucks are rolling over the U.S. border, freely bound for anywhere in America, and it seems that nothing -- not furious Teamsters nor angry environmentalists, not even Congress -- can stop them.
Are the drivers properly licensed and sober or well-rested with the legal amount of down time? Do they speak English or understand U.S. road signs? Will the trucks be carrying illegal immigrants, drugs, terrorists, nuclear or biological weapons or other contraband? Will they belch tons of banned pollutants into America’s air? Will lower-paid Mexican drivers put American truckers out of work? Will the trucks gut the tax base which supports the U.S. highway infrastructure?
Frankly, no one knows. But, like it or not, the trucks are rolling. It’s a done deal.
When the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco denied an appeal from the Teamsters, the Sierra Club and other groups on Aug. 31, it opened the way for a “test program” pushed by the Bush administration to begin.
Initially, the Department of Transportation plans to ...   more »